Heal My Broken Heart
by Eimin - The Eternal Sleep
Summary: Ichigo is rapidly losing her powers due to heartbreak and needs Ryou's support and guidence to retain what little she has. Could this develop into something...more? Written for Tomahawk3.0's Tmm golden globe award contest!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello world!!!**

**Lalalalalalalala!**

**So this is my 'fantastic' attempt at Tomahawk3.0's Tmm golden globe awards competition!**

**It's RyouxIchigo, don't like, don't read!**

**On with the story!!! :)**

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**Heal My Broken Heart**

**Chapter 1: Rejection**

Ichigo watched the falling snowdrops with rapt attention. Each one was _so _individual and unique! _So beautiful... _She thought - content - watching the slightly hypnotising swirl-and-fall of the shimmering crystal flakes. Everything was just as it should be. The air was crisp and cold, yet comforting against her skin, the snowdrops were angels serenading her in soft soprano and - best of all - or so she thought, she was travelingto see Masaya in the park.

Skipping along, she giggled delightedly at the thought. _I'll see Aoyama-kun soon! _Giddy with anticipation, she shot down the stone steps at a break-neck pace. On the last one she tripped and was caught - screaming of course - in Masaya's arms. She beamed up at him gratefully but he didn't return her smile. His face was cold and hard. Distant. He grabbed her hand with unnecessary force - causing her to wince in pain - and set of at a brisk pace to a bench not far away.

"Aoyama-kun...?" she whispered staring at the icy expression on his face.

"Sit down Ichigo" he ordered tonelessly "And listen to me."

"Aoyama-kun?" she repeated, completely at sea.

Suddenly, he was shouting "Ichigo I am so SICK of you being late for our dates. I understand that you are a mew but you can't expect me to wait _forever _can you?!" When she didn't answer he shook her shoulders roughly. "CAN YOU!"

Ichigo found her voice "I-I don't understand what you're saying A-Aoyama-kun." Her voice was raw and cracked. She shook with suppresed sobs.

He tore the crimson bow with a bell on it from her neck. It stung and she screeched in pain.

"Goodbye Ichigo" his mouth twisted at her name. He stood up and set off at a brisk walk, going the exact direction that they had come.

Ichigo scrambled to her feet. "Aoyama-kun!" she cried, tears cascading like waterfalls down her cheeks. "A-Aoyama-kun!" He didn't even turn. Her legs betrayed her - she wanted to run after him, to scream - to beg - but she collapsed pitifully on the icy, snow splattered street. She sobbed, gasping and shaking like she'd been denied sufficient air. The world spun around her as she cried heartbroken, angry tears. Eventually, the tears finished, Ichigo could shed no more and she just sat there, getting gradually colder, as the day progressed. _How dare he?! _She sobbed angrily "HOW DARE HE?!" She screamed into the unforgiving, biting cold. A few people turned to stare at her quizzically but she was too distraught to care. _How could I fall for someone so heartless..._

The snow was no longer comforting. It was hard and cold and bitter. It fell in mournful whispers all around as she sobbed away her love...


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: sorry, I suck. I know I do. I've had so much on my plate that I haven't had much chance to update! Like coursework and exams...Lots and lots of exams...So really sorry! *Cowers from shouts***

**I had to re-write this chapter because Ryou was really _really _OOC. I suffer from insomnia and I wrote it when I hadn't slept for a week so it was rubbish so I tried again.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own TMM. If I did Masaya would die a horrifically painful death *Evil laugh* MWAHAHAHAHA!**

**On with the story!**

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**Chapter 2: Frozen**

Ryou shivered in the icy gale that was the weather and cursed himself inwardly for his stubbornness. Before he left the cafe to get some more ingredients from the shop, Keiichiro had warned him of how cold it was; "You should wear a coat," his closest friend had warned. Ryou - being Ryou - had utterly ignored this advice and was now reaping the 'rewards' of this mistake. Another eight pronged crystal dropped lithely onto his nose, making it itch with irritation until -

"ACHOO!" Ryou sneezed loudly. _Stupid snow! _He cursed in his mind, _Why? Who would want this?! _A face sprung into his mind with vivid red hair and a smile brighter than sunbeams. Ryou sighed, "Baka strawberry would want this."

The fact that Ichigo had missed work today was proof of that. She was probably out there enjoying the sleet and unwelcome snow with a grin on her face, maybe catching crystallised snowflakes on her tongue.

_Stop! _Ryou blocked the image with a large wall. What was wrong with him?! Lately whenever he tried to concentrate on something - _anything_- other than Ichigo he'd hit a blank. Like his mind wasn't functioning properly. It was fantastically irritating. The light snow was slowly becoming a tornado of frozen white that looked ominous and terrifying to him _- nothing_was worse than the cold. Except maybe thunder and lightning. Ryou cringed lightly. Ichigo would _never_ let him live that embarrassment down.

_The cafe was almost empty, only the mew mews, Ryou and Keiichiro hiding from the dark skies of the thunderstorm. Mint was talking to Zakuro about her modelling career, a puppy-dog look in her eyes. Retasu moved slowly and carefully towards the cupboards carrying a pile of clean plates with paramount care. Abruptly, a shimmering blur of gold flashed across the room, making poor Retasu shriek and drop all of the plates in surprise. The gold slowed and it turned out to be... Purin. Obviously. "Retasu dropped ALL the plates NANODA!" She trilled in evident delight whilst Retasu looked close to tears._

_Ichigo, armed with a mop, gave Ryou an angry, icy glare, the dark sky playing across her face made her look_ almost_sinister. Ryou returned the glare evenly and then smirked. She hissed a sound that could have only been interpreted as a snarl of complaint. Ryou laughed, knowing it would incense her. She muttered a few dark, unintelligible words and returned to her work._

_He leaned against the windowsill, smirking; Ichigo really was easy to anger. Abruptly a golden streak of lightning erupted from the sky with the sound of a whip crack. CRACK! Then finished with a loud and ominous boom of thunder._

_"ARGH!" Ryou yelled loudly and fell off the windowsill and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor._

_Retasu's kind shriek of "Shirogane-san are you okay?" was quickly overruled by a humongous peal of laughter. Appealing, even though it was _him _being laughed at. Ichigo was giggling so hard that tears were streaming down her angelic face. She gasped loudly for breath as she continued to cackle insanely. The other mews had laughed too, but even they were shocked by the hysteria pouring out of Ichigo's mouth._

_"S-s-shirogane's scared of thunder! - Terrified!" she cackled, holding on to the table for support. "Hahahahahahahahaha!"_

_"Oh no..." Ryou sighed._

Yeah, _definitely _not the best thing he'd ever done. It was an irrational fear - he knew that - but still he was afraid. It was horrible to think about so he turned his brain to other things, things that didn't involve his ditsy, red-haired employee. Ryou decided to use the park as a shortcut to get to the shop; it wasn't _too _far.

He pushed the gates getting snow caked into his fingernails. The park was a war zone! Small children ran around, screeching like harpies. One of them grabbed his friend in a choke-hold round the neck and piled heaps of the freezing snow down his friend's back, who screeched and struggled as a result. As Ryou watched, a young girl with navy-coloured hair got the full effect of a snowball in her face. When it trickled away she had a roundish red mark burned into her skin which she ignored as she chased her friend, pelting him with snowballs.

That's when his sight caught hold of _her_. Ichigo. Strawberry. She lay under a tree, shivering fitfully in a thin, snow covered coat. Even from a distance, Ryou could see her uneven breathing gasp out of her body, the white mist quickly evaporating in the air. Her chest was moving... unevenly and her hair was so snow covered that it was now albino-white.

"Ichigo!" Ryou gasped in shock as he sprinted towards her scarcely moving form. As he drew closer, he noticed that she was in a _much _worse condition than he expected. Her skin was tinged an eerie purple an her clothes were ripped and frayed. She didn't seem to know where she was. She just kept whispering through icy blue lips, "He's gone..."

Ryou supported her head and shoulders as he shook her, gently at first but when she was still unresponsive he began to shake her harder.

"Ichigo? Ichigo!" he sobbed, keeping his gaze locked on her half-closed eyes, "are you okay? Answer me! Ichigo!" Slowly, Ichigo's wildly whirling eyes focused blearily on him and he smiled "Ichigo?"

Her eyes held a sort of fevered hope, a desperate longing that Ryou could not comprehend. As her gaze sharpened, the hope abruptly vanished as soon as it had appeared. "Oh..." she breathed in a startlingly weak and feeble voice through her waxy lips, "Shirogane."

Ryou could have cried with happiness. "Stay with me Ichigo!" he shouted through her fog of pain, "stay! Don't you _dare _give up!"

Quickly, but with as much gentleness as he could manage, he scooped her up from the icicles of once green grass that had sapped her life.

"Hang on Ichigo," he whispered as he raced back to cafe mew mew, the ingredients forgotten, "please_, please_ be okay..."


End file.
